


Sharon, Kanou, and the Great Cake Caper

by goeskaboom



Series: International Affairs [3]
Category: Okane ga Nai
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-11-21
Updated: 2010-11-21
Packaged: 2017-10-13 07:44:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/134794
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/goeskaboom/pseuds/goeskaboom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tie-in to <i>International Affairs 2: Living Will</i>. The whole cake story? This is it. Find out exactly what made little Kanou and Sharon steal the wedding cake.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Sharon, Kanou, and the Great Cake Caper

**Author's Note:**

> _In an inversion from the main story, text in Italics is spoken in Japanese._

Anyone who ever had the good fortune (or misfortune, depending on your point of view) of meeting one Sharon Klicks Gray was sure to come to the same conclusion: the businesswoman was remarkably calculating and sneaky, all the while hiding her true nature under a geniunely friendly, rather silly exterior. “It must have taken years for her to perfect that persona,” people say. But the truth is, even as a child, Sharon was incredibly talented at the mind games that are so important to people in the business world today.

And so, it was that cold, rainy February day in 1980 that six-year-old Sharon was sitting in front of a mirror, frowning darkly at the hairdresser her father had hired to get her ready for the wedding. “Oh, Miss Gray, you must be very excited! You haven't had a mother you can probably remember, right? Now there will be someone who can do girl stuff with you, take you shopping, and do your hair better than your father can! You'll have someone who can help you with your homework while your father is at work!” Sharon just glowered darkly.

“I have a credit card.” she informed the hairdresser. “And I have a driver. I can go shopping by myself. And I already know my multiplication tables. I don't need someone to help me with my homework.” The hairdresser looked taken aback, but then continued.

“But your new mother is a supermodel! Won't that be fun! She can teach you about fashion and makeup, and you two can watch girly movies together!” It was then that Little Sharon decided that the hairdresser was crazier than a hat full of cats, and decided to fall silent.

The truth was, her father's latest girlfriend, the one he was marrying now, had no interest in the little girl, or her older brother. Roxanne Chaput either treated the children like a piece of furniture, ignored them, or, occasionally, lashed out at them. She was always very careful not to do it around Gregory Gray, however- for all of his faults he was fiercely protective of his two children. Once, she had even struck Sharon across the face when the child accidentally knocked her designer handbag off of the counter while trying to get to a tin of cookies, then stubbed a cigarette out on Matthew's back when he yelled at her for hurting his little sister. Neither child told their father though, because they feared that if Gregory Gray didn't believe them, Roxanne's retribution would be worse.

No, neither Sharon nor Matthew were all that excited about getting a new mother. But Matthew at least got out of having to attend the wedding, by going to stay with his biological mother during that particular week. Sharon, unfortunately, had no such escape, since her mother was dead. So she was just going to have to deal with it.

Angrily, she picked at one of the spangles on the gaudy dress Roxanne had provided for her to wear, and scowled in the mirror as the hairdresser finished the finalizing touches. Ringlet curls looked stupid on her, Sharon thought, like she was in some cartoon. “There. You look very cute! Have a good time at the wedding!” the hairdresser said cheerfully. Being a polite cihld, Sharon thanked her and gave her the $15 her father had given her to tip the woman with amd went downstairs to help her father greet his guests.

“Hello, Uncle William,” Sharon said politely to her father's old mentor, William Hughes as he approached.

“Hello there, Sharon,” the elderly man said, tipping his hat to the girl. “You look very pretty, like a princess.”

“Really?” Sharon asked dubiously. “I think I look stupid.”

“No, you look lovely. And here,” he said, opening the briefcase he always carried with him and taking out a small stuffed cat. “I know that this transition will be hard for you, but here's someone you can tell about it.” Sharon accepted the stuffed toy, shooting her uncle-figure a huge smile.

“Thank you, Uncle William!” she exclaimed happily.

“What are you giving her presents for?” Roxanne demanded to know, frustrated by the older man's behavior. He'd spent all of that time talking to the brat, and had yet to extend congratulations to Gregory and herself! “It's not her birthday!” William Hughes looked at the woman, and arched an eyebrow.

“Congratulations on your marriage, Ms. Chaput,” the elderly man said. “I only hope that this doesn't turn out to be another mistake that Gregory makes... too many times he's fallen in with bad women. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to make a phone call. See you at the reception.” And with that, William Hughes strode off, leaving Sharon, Gregory, and a fuming Roxanne in his wake.

“Where does he get off saying something like that to me?” Roxanne demanded to know. Gregory shrugged.

“He's always been like that, and it's alright if he wants to give Sharon a present. He usually does.”

“Well, he shouldn't! She'll get spoiled!”

 _“Gregory! Good to see you!”_ a different voice called out in Japanese, causing both Sharon and her father to turn around. Noritada Somuku was standing there with his four-year-old son Kanou, who looked just as irritated as Sharon felt, and current wife, Tamami Kagabu, who didn't look too much more pleased to be there than her stepson. But upon seeing the older girl, Kanou immediately looked less grumpy.

“Shawon, what happened to your hair?” he asked with a childish lisp in heavily accented English.

 _“Miss Roxanne said I had to have this hairstyle for the wedding,”_ Sharon replied in Japanese, knowing that it would be easier for Kanou to communicate in his own tongue, which she had a pretty good grasp of. _“I look really stupid, don't I?”_

 _“No, you're pwetty,”_ Kanou replied. _“You look like the one who should be getting mawwied.”_

 _“Yuck. I don't ever want to get married., then I would end up acting like Miss Roxanne!”_ Sharon exclaimed, causing two of the adults present to crack up, one to glare at her, and the other to fidget uncomfortably.

 _“Gregory, your daughter looks to be shaping up to be on your par waith the sarcasm!”_ Noritada laughed.

“Sharon...” Gregory said warningly, while Roxanne just looked irritated.

“Why won't she speak English around me! What did she say? I heard my name! Why are those two laughing so loudly? What did she say about me?”

“Nothing, nothing,” Tamami replied, stifling her laughter. _“Good lord, Gray-san, no wonder your daughter does not like her stepmother! Imagine being upset because a child is bilingual!”_

“I don't think that's what Roxanne is worried about, is it honey?” Gregory replied, casting a glance at his soon-to-be wife. Roxanne shook her head vehemently.

“I just want to be sure that the little- I mean, girl doesn't speak about me behind my back. It's almost impossible to tell what she's saying, you know? She could be being very disrespectful to me, and I can't have that if I'm going to be a mother figure to her and her brother.” Tamami's eyes narrowed, but she didn't say anything other than,

“Indeed.”

“We'll be taking our seats now,” Noritada said to the couple. _“Come along, Kanou.”_

 _“I want to stay with Shawon!”_ the little boy exclaimed.

“I don't have a problem with it,” Gregory replied. “If they want to sit together, that's fine with me. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go get ready for the ceremony,” and he walked off. Kanou and Sharon stayed behind, and furiously, Roxanne grabbed Sharon by the shoulders and shook her.

“You little brat! Humiliating me in front of those foreigners like that! You'll regret that later, you ungrateful, spoiled, child! You will obey me, do you hear me? I am going to be your mother, and your father is at work most of the day. You will not overstep your boundaries. You're not even his legitimate child, what makes you think you're so special? At least he was married to Matthew's mother!” Sharon shivered under the cold words, but just said,

“Yes ma'am.”

“That's more like it,” Roxanne replied before striding away, never noticing that Tamami Kagabu had been watching the whole scene unfold with narrowed eyes.

 _“She's mean,”_ Kanou said.

 _“Yeah, she is. She hits me for no reason sometimes,”_ Sharon replied. _“But I can't tell my dad because then she'll keep hitting me, and she'll hit Matthew too. She likes to tell me I won't get to take over Daddy's company because my mom was a whore, whatever that is.”_ And then, she thought of something. _“Hey, do you want to go eat cake? There's this really big one in the kitchen, and it's got strawberries and chocolate and everything on it!”_

 _“Yeah! Cake!”_ Kanou agreed happily. While all of the adults were busy with other things, the two children snuck off to the kitchen in the Gray house, which was deserted, except for the giant cake on a cart.

 _“Woooow....”_ Kanou breathed. _“Can we eat it?”_

 _“It's a cake, isn't it?”_ Sharon said. _“You're supposed to eat cake. Come on, help me move the cart, it's heavy!”_ Checking to make sure that the hallway to the coat closet was clear, the two children struggled to wheel out the cart that held the massive cake. By some miracle they managed it, and got the cake into the closet, where they immediately stood around it, trying to decide what part to eat first.

 _“I forgot forks and stuff...”_ Sharon lamented. _“I don't want to go back outside, in case they noticed the cake is gone.”_

 _“Can't we eat it with our hands?”_ Kanou suggested. _“The strawbewwies don't need forks.”_

 _“Good idea,”_ Sharon said. And so the two began to eat, chowing down on the wedding cake. It was amazing how much cake two very small people could pack away in the course of an hour and fifteen minutes, but by the time that the wedding ceremony was over, and the children heard footsteps and chatter heading towards the kitchen, they had eaten the entire thing.

 _“Matthew is going to be mad that I didn't save him any,”_ Sharon said regretfully.

 _“Who cawes? That was good!”_ Kanou exclaimed.

 _“Yes it was.”_

“EEEEEEEK!” a loud scream came from the kitchen. “WHERE IS MY WEDDING CAKE? WHERE IS SHARON?” Roxanne was definitely furious. “I don't remember seeing her during the ceremony! I'll bet she took the cake, just to be a brat! She's still being ungrateful about the dress!”

“Calm down, dear,” Gregory tried to console his newlywed wife.

“I WILL NOT CALM DOWN! WHERE IS THE BRAT!?” And then... “SKID MARKS! ON THE TILE! TO THE CLOSET!”

“I do not think there is any cause to be so upset, Roxanne,” William Hughes' voice was overheard saying. “We can always get another cake.”

“NOT THAT ONE!” Before either Kanou or Sharon could process what was happening, the closet door flung open, and a furious Roxanne stood out the door. She took one look at the scene in front of her- Sharon, Kanou, and the wreckage of what once had obviously been a luxurious wedding cake, and screamed.

“YOU DAMN BRAT!” she yowled. “And the Chinese kid, too! They've ruined my wedding!” Before Sharon had a chance to react, the angry woman had grabbed her by the hair and began to slap her across the face, punctuating each smack with a swear word. Suddenly, she felt three pairs of hands on her shoulder, and she turned around to look at three very pissed wedding guests.

“I would stop hitting that child if I were you,” Noritada Somuku said, his voice a deadly calm.

“Where we come from, we do not condone violence against children, especially for something harmless like this,” Tamami Kagabu snarled, obviously much less calm than her husband. “If you do not release my stepson's friend, you will face more consequences than just a smack in the face. And by the way, we are Japanese, not Chinese.”

“I already said I hoped Gregory hadn't made a mistake with you,” William Hughes said sadly. “It appears that he did.”

“Roxanne?” The woman in question turned to see her husband, an extremely shocked expression on his face. “What... what are you doing?”

“Your child just destroyed our wedding cake with that friend of hers! The damn kid has no manners, that's why I keep having to punish her and her brother!”

“What do you mean, 'punish?'” Noritada asked sharply. “Are you saying that this is not the first time you've done something like this?”

“Of course it is! Why would I hit a child?” Roxanne tried to bluff, knowing that she was in trouble. William Hughes looked at her disgustedly.

“I don't think we should listen to anything you have to say,” he said. “Now. Sharon. Has this woman ever done anything else like this to you before?” Sharon looked nervously from her new stepmother to the other adults gathered here. Maybe they would believe her if she told the truth? And if they didn't? Maybe she'd hide in Kanou's suitcase and go back to Tokyo with him. Anything would be better than staying there with that woman.

“Yes, she has. She hits me for stupid things, like accidentally knocking her purse off the counter or talking too loud when she's around. And if Matthew tries to help me, or makes a mess, she hits him or burns him."

“What do you mean, burns him?” William asked, very seriously.

“With her cigarettes.” Sharon replied. Tamami sucked in a breath.

“You bitch,” she spat at Roxanne. “I thought there was something off about you when I saw you shaking Sharon-chan earlier. I didn't know that was how bad you were!”

“They deserved it,” Roxanne said defiantly. Gregory shook his head.

“I can't believe this,” he said angrily. “We're through! It's a pity that we already were married, or I would have called the wedding off had I known! What gives you the right to hit my children? Nothing.”

“Come on! I can give you legitimate children!” Roxanne howled. “Not like this one, with her whore of a mother, and your other one, with his nine-times divorced mother!”

“Give me back the ring,” Gregory said. “You're not worthy of it. Bill!”

“Yo,” one of the other wedding guests said, having gathered at the edge of the scene.

“Draw up the divorce paperwork,” he replied.

“Right away, sir.”

“You can't do this to me!” Roxanne yelled. “You can't, you can't!”

“Unless you'd like to be arrested for child abuse, I'd shut up if I were you,” a female guest said, shaking her head.

“I have half a mind to arrest her right now!” another guest, who turned out to be a cop, yelled.  


* * *

Once the Roxanne situation was taken care of, both Sharon and Kanou got sat down for a very serious talk by the adults.

 _“I know you two were probably bored and hungry,”_ Tamami said, _“but a wedding cake is supposed to be a symbol of the newlyweds' life together, and you musn't eat it before they say it's OK.”_

 _“But the lady was a bad lady who hurt Shawon,”_ Kanou replied. _“And I thought Gway-san was going to bweak up with her?”_

 _“She is,”_ Noritaka said. _“But it doesn't excuse the fact that you acted badly. Since you already ate so much cake, however, your punishment will be no dessert for two months, and no allowance for three.”_

Meanwhile, Sharon was getting a talking-to, but for entirely different reasons. He father didn't care about the cake, he was more angry that he had allowed this woman to abuse his children, and neither of them had said anything. “Why didn't you tell me what was going on, Sharon? She has been hurting both you and Matthew and you've never said anything about it before? You can't have thought I would be angry with you.”

“She told us you wouldn't believe us,” Sharon said miserably. “She told us that if we told you she'd get us back, because you wouldn't believe us because you loved her. She...she said y-you didn't care about me because my mom was a whore. I don't even know what that is!”

“She said what?!” Gregory exclaimed angrily. “I heard her not too long ago, but you mean she told you that before today?”

“Yes,” Sharon replied, staring at the floor.

“Listen to me, Sharon- that is a very bad word, one that you should never call someone else without good cause. And Roxanne didn't have good cause. That was absolutely uncalled-for, and I will be speaking to her later.”

“She also thought Kanou was Chinese! Can you believe that, Daddy?” Gregory had to suppress a small smile at that. Sharon didn't really seem to care all that much that her mother's honor, and by default, hers, had been defiled in such a way. No, Sharon was mostly pissed that her soon-to-be ex-stepmother had gotten her friend's nationality wrong.

“Come on, Sharon. Let's go get some ice cream, OK?”

“Urrrgh...” Sharon said in response to that. “I never want to eat dessert ever again!”

**Author's Note:**

> Can also be found on my [blog](http://goeskaboom.insanejournal.com/838.html#cutid1)


End file.
